Death Must Die Weaves Together the Best of Hades and Vampire Survivors

Death Must Die is a new action roguelike and bullet hell hybrid that mixes two fan favorites into one addictive stew.

Death Must Die Creates an Interesting Mix of Hades and Vampire Survivors

Fans of the roguelike Hades who can’t just wait for Hades 2 to come out might be interested in the new game being worked on by Realm Archive. Their latest project is called Death Must Die, a pixel-art take that mixes the best elements of Hades and Vampire Survivors. It creates a neat blend of action roguelike plus bullet heaven, with some other RPG elements thrown in for good measure.

So is it worth checking out? Let’s dive in!

Die, and Die, Again

Various prominent figures in video game history have tried to combat death, but ultimately fail. Even the Gods sometimes choose not to trifle with Death, as it is usually much more trouble than it’s worth. Death Must Die tells the story of some unsung heroes chosen by the Gods as their champions. Perhaps with the backing of an elite pantheon, a mere mortal could climb The High Mount and face off against Death themselves.

Death Must Die has players pick one of the daring heroes who wishes to put an end to death. Just like in Hades, various Gods lend us their power for us to lay waste to Death’s legions. One immediate difference you’ll notice with Death Must Die is that instead of facing off a handful of enemies, you are usually pitted against dozens if not hundreds at a time.

Just like the Vampire Survivors and its various spinoff games, screens are filled to the brim with countless foes that home into your location, out for your blood. Initial trailers don’t make it seem like the foes will have any special AI, and will just lumber toward you. But of course that’s to be expected from games such as Vampire Survivors.

The Champions Against Death

Unlike Hades, there are different classes players can choose from in Death Must Die. There seem to be 5 character classes at the moment. These comprise the Knight, the Warrior, the Barbarian, the Assassin, and the Sorceress. As expected, it looks like each of them has their skills and perks that make them stand out from the rest. These “Blessings” confer various buffs, such as increasing your overall damage, and attack speed, among other things.

The kicker here in Death Must Die is that you have the backing of the Gods that will help customize your run and make things interesting. Unlike Hades, the deities are all anime-inspired, but still very well rendered in glorious pixel art. We have gods and goddesses of Fire, Cold, Conquest, Lightning, Fate, Balance, and Time watching our backs. Even Mort, the Daughter of Death has had enough of her father and is lending us her powers of curses and debuffs.

Divine Judgment All-Around

Each divine being will have different bonuses, such as Summer the Flame Goddess having the affinity to make things explode and burn. What will make each roguelike run interesting is how you will build up your chosen character’s blessing and equipment with the random god boons that you’ll collect along the way.

It looks like you can create some truly fantastical builds with the sheer number of god blessings available. Like choosing to align with Leigong, the God of Lightning will let you zip around the battlefield in a ball of electricity, then unleash charged bolts every time you hit an enemy.

The gods and goddesses also have some playful banter with our character, just like in Hades. It might be expecting too much of the small developers to expect the same quantity of quality dialogue that Hades had. It should help flesh out this intriguing world that Realm Archive have created, however.

Death Must Die

Death Must Die is being developed by Realm Archive, which is a small indie team comprised of only four people. It was released into Early Access last November 15, 2023, and sells for $6.99, which is quite reasonable considering the amount of content already in. Though it is perfectly understandable if some people are wary of diving into yet another Early Access game that may or may not get completed. Reviews so far have been Very Positive on Steam, with 92% of the 4,400 reviews recommending the game as of writing.